On Sunday 01 June 2003 09:56 pm, Togan Muftuoglu wrote:
* Anders Johansson; <andjoh@rydsbo.net> on 02 Jun, 2003 wrote:
from or to programs.
No it isn't. It is completely useless knowledge for, say, the company secretary. In fact, it is worse than useless, since it's just distracting from his/her real work.
There are users for whom that type of knowledge would be useful. And then there are most users, for whom it is not.
Correct, when conducting any training there are two types of information
a) Need to know b) Nice to know
Need to know information is essential to get the job done while nice to know is just for the interested person. Especially in an entry level training the educator must carefully select the need to know information to be presented to the participants. This will make sure that success is guaranteed and speed of learning is fast. Everybody wants to be successful when they take a class and making sure they are achieving their goal should be the major concern of the program designer.
Knowing a thing or two about the /ever present/ standard text processor tools is useful too, if only to give them a feel for the power of these tools for future uses.
For most regular users there are not now, nor will there ever be a time when sed, awk of vi is useful. This is why companies have admins.
It is extremely detrimental to the "linux on the desktop" movement to include this type of material in "luser" classes. It scares people away.
Well said unfortunately not many people realize this
The fear factor. And both have excellent points. Togans are particularly to the point. NO ONE LIKES TO FAIL and if you sink them in technical jargon and concepts that are convuleted and complex they will struggle more than necessary and feel like they are not up to it and failing. This is the surest way to kill interest and darken opinions. Can you hear it? I'm sure you have... Linux is too technical, Linux is for Geeks. Linux is ready for the desktop. It's ready for the mainstream. But perception is everything (especially on Wall Street and the market). So, show them how to get their jobs done and then they'll spread the word amongst themselves,.. Like - I haven't seen a BOSD ever. I got a virus in my mail box but it didn't do anything (um, this could be a problem later though - ah user habits). My system froze, but I.T. said hit crtl-alt-backspace and log back in. I thought I woud have to wait for a few minutes for the machine to boot. But all I had to do was log back in. No scan disks, no waiting for the server to connect. It was just a couple of seconds and I'm back. If the admins have the sys maintained Linux on the client side will kick the ever loving sh%* out of Windows in the office. It hasn't gained a reputation for stability for nothing. It needs to shed it's reputation for being non-users friendly. Now is the time to step away for the server and into the client. Understanding what the users need is what it's about, not what the admin or the instructors know about it technically. It's up to the Linux class instructors to orient the users to using the system, not maintaining and configuring it - thats the admins job. The key word in all of this is "users" - those that use a thing, not build it. :) Cheers, Curtis.